Julia Lane set the world of para swimming alight together with her show at this 12 months’s World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships in Portugal.
Of the seven medals received by Canadian swimmers from Oct. 17 to 22, the Windsor athlete received six.
Lane captured gold within the 50-metre and 100-metre butterfly occasions, silver within the 50-metre freestyle, and bronze within the 100-metre, 200-metre and 800-metre freestyle occasions. And the 22-year-old was the one feminine Canadian swimmer to make the rostrum.
“I’m happy with my instances and the way I represented Canada,” she mentioned.
Lane can be happy with representing Windsor on the worldwide stage.
“This is my dwelling,” she mentioned. “I joined a swimming membership right here. I prepare right here.”
Lane caught the swimming bug after watching her sister swim when she was youthful. Her profession started in 2014 with non-public teaching Jodi Cortese of the Windsor Aquatic Club.
She then joined the LaSalle Windsor Special Olympics swim group, a program she nonetheless participates in alongside swimming with the Windsor Aquatic Club as a para swimmer. Her mom, Cynthia, who can be the president of the Canadian Down Syndrome Swimming Association, mentioned her profession has been supported by herself and her husband, Brian.
“We’ve mainly constructed a group to assist Julia,” Cynthia mentioned. “From the nutritionist to the swim practices and personal teaching. We received her engaged in CrossFit to make her stronger simply so she’d have that chance at the World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships.”
Brian’s and Cynthia’s willpower to see Julia succeed noticed them create a GoFundMe web page that raised $3,825. Cynthia mentioned the assist was very humbling.
“It was very touching that everyone wished to present what they might in her efforts to make it to the rostrum.”
Down syndrome is a genetic dysfunction the place an additional copy of a chromosome causes developmental adjustments and bodily options of the syndrome.
Julia mentioned it does not cease her, and she or he needs others to know that they will additionally succeed.
“Put within the work and check out your greatest,” she mentioned. “If someone has Down [syndrome], they will all the time swim.”
Julia is now aiming to compete within the 2024 World Down Syndrome Swimming Championships, that are set to happen in Antalya, Turkey. Her accomplishments have made her dad and mom proud.
“She’s the star,” Cynthia mentioned of her daughter. “She places the time in. She’s such a fierce competitor. I’m in awe that she will be able to do that. When she was born, I by no means anticipated that we’d be right here immediately.
“She’s risen above any challenges and to have the ability to go to a meet such because the World Championships together with her friends is the icing on the cake.”